Apr 22, 2011

After WW II Allies Dumped 450 Tons of CW Off East Japan Coast

Offshore of Choshi Bay was one of the biggest chemical dump sites in Japan. The Allied Forces dumped 450 tons of chemical weapons in depths of 100 – 200 meters between October 1945 and May 1946. According to the Japanese Ministry of the Environment, more than 600 incidents were reported to the government (shown by the red circle) ... and more than 50 people have suffered from the incidents around the Bay.


More than two thirds of the incidents occurred in the 1970s and in 1972 people discovered chemical weapons and agents on 66 occasions. However, no incident was reported to the government from 1993 to 2001. In fact, it is reported that fishermen in the bay area have been throwing the discovered chemical weapons back to the ocean without notifying the government. The fishermen are worried about a rumor that the fish from this region might be polluted by the weapons, which would affect their business. This would cause a larger scale of chemical material scattering.
Ryo Sato, Research Assistant
Global Green USA
Sea-Dumped Chemical Weapons: Japan (pgs. 14 - 15)

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